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Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

nature.com

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Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#101

Post by M277 »

koevet wrote: post #87
zhynn wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I always find it funny that fasting comes up so often, but a ctrl-f almost never turns up someone mentioning Ramadan. Nearly 25% of the world population fasts for an entire month, but it's almost invisible to the western world. While I don't agree with all of the details of the fast (I drink water), I think it is an admirable holiday, it's way healthier for the world than Christmas or Thanksgiving.

I lived in Saudi Arabia for two years and did Ramadan, out of not wanting to offend my Saudi colleagues who were fasting. As a practictioner of fasting, I don't think that "modern" Ramadan has much to do with fasting anymore - at least, in the way I see fasting working for me. Reason being that at the end of each day of fasting, there is a very large amount of food being consumed, and I mean a lot. Fasting is about c…

Egyptian here, can confirm this unfortunately. Most here just go all-in when they break their fast. In fact, I would say that they ingest more calories in Ramadan than in regular days. I advise all I know to eat with moderation, but few listen :(

Personally, when I started to eat moderately when fasting, I started to feel much better. Previously, I would be very tired when breaking the fast... I would be so full that I wouldn't be able to do anything except lie down.

I think that the current trends are due to people nowadays seeing it like a mega celebration, and they see that eating a lot and feeling tired after is just a sign of that celebration. Ramadan is more than just fasting, but I am going off-topic.

By the way, there's a sunnah in Islam to fast Monday's and Thursday's. Some here may find it beneficial.

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#102

Post by pharke »

zhynn wrote: post #77
Cro_on wrote: post #10

If there were ever a panacea, it would be fasting. The more tight and widespread the research becomes, the more that we prove what humanity has known anecdotally throughout civilisation. From being a Roman cure for epileptic seizures, through the integral practice in most religions, and to the 21st century where we start to prove that it increases both healthspan and lifespan. I find it quite interesting that somethi…

I always find it funny that fasting comes up so often, but a ctrl-f almost never turns up someone mentioning Ramadan. Nearly 25% of the world population fasts for an entire month, but it's almost invisible to the western world. While I don't agree with all of the details of the fast (I drink water), I think it is an admirable holiday, it's way healthier for the world than Christmas or Thanksgiving.

Ctrl-f also returns no results for Lent. I haven't tried for other religious fasting or abstinent holidays but I'm sure there would be 0 to few mentions. HN skews strongly towards certain industries and demographics so it's a bad sample of "the western world" and it seems that most people posting here would simply lump Ramadan under "religious practices" of which there are several mentions. Most religions include both feasting and fasting practices so I wouldn't single out any single one as more healthy or hurtful for the world.

I agree with the basic premise that religious fasting is an often overlooked but beneficial practice in the modern era.

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#103

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

zhynn wrote: post #77
Cro_on wrote: post #10

If there were ever a panacea, it would be fasting. The more tight and widespread the research becomes, the more that we prove what humanity has known anecdotally throughout civilisation. From being a Roman cure for epileptic seizures, through the integral practice in most religions, and to the 21st century where we start to prove that it increases both healthspan and lifespan. I find it quite interesting that somethi…

I always find it funny that fasting comes up so often, but a ctrl-f almost never turns up someone mentioning Ramadan. Nearly 25% of the world population fasts for an entire month, but it's almost invisible to the western world. While I don't agree with all of the details of the fast (I drink water), I think it is an admirable holiday, it's way healthier for the world than Christmas or Thanksgiving.

But they eat each day in Ramadan (at certain times), don't they? How is it even "fasting" and why should it be mentioned?

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#104

Post by eperfa »

keithwarren wrote: post #98
markus92 wrote: post #27

Interesting study with, as always, a lot of caveats. The most we can take from this is that it's worth to study more, the effect is existing but not extreme. I don't get the submitted title here claiming that it protects from side effects. The study does not mention this at all, just that the side effects are similar despite omission of dexamethason in the fasting arm of the trial - it increases appetite, so makes se…

My wife is Stage 3, ++- (43 yo) and half way through the taxol phase of an ACT regimen; she is progressing well but I know she has the discipline to do a fasting diet if we thought it would help. Any thoughts on starting this mid-way through the treatment?

Absolutely not a doctor, so no way qualified to give professional advice, but the article states that not everyone followed the diet during all treatments, so they included all patients who complied at least during half of the cases, and the positive results are based on this extended group. This, and the suggested mechanism of why they think the method works, would lead me to believe that it makes sense to try it.

Wish you & your wife strength and all the best.

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#105

Post by ideals »

If you aggressively fast on chemo you must must must take vitamins. Have seen personally what can happen when one does this without supplementing and have a result of low levels of thiamine which is lethal and has life long effects when it isn't.

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#106

Post by ip26 »

hourislate wrote: post #61
mmhsieh wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

while on fasts, you get an energy level and mental clarity that has to be felt to be believed. everyone should try it at least once.

I have fasted 100 lbs away over the last 2 years. I adhere to an 18/6 time delay eating schedule but have done 2-3 day fasts with 1 refeed meal for a month at a time. I've also done countless 5-7 day fasts. I've gone as long as 12 days with nothing but water. There were many months where I could count the number of times I ate on one hand. My last go was every other day with just one meal on my eating days. I did tha…

We need different words, really. You're describing a starvation or calorie reduction fast. More common, and what I practice, is more like a time-shift fast. For example, I exercise in the morning before eating breakfast. This is a fasted state. It trains your body to use fat as fuel. The eventual result of doing this is greater stability in your mood & mind. Your body doesn't crave carbs so much anymore, and you feel good whether or not you've eaten recently.

Your brain runs on carbs. The easiest source of carbs is carb rich food. This is why hangry people seem to want nothing but cookies & candy IMO. But your body can only hold a limited amount of free carbs at any time. Meanwhile, your liver can convert fat to carbs to feed your brain, and your body can hold a virtually unlimited amount of fat. This pathway is more difficult, so you have to train your body to use it.

So I don't think it makes you smarter or more energetic. But it does make you more stable & help avoid the crash.

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#107

Post by SeanLuke »

feralimal wrote: post #63
0-_-0 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I'm reading this correctly, the "harm from chemo" to the person was about the same, but the "harm from chemo" to the cancer was much more significant in the fasting group.

Yes. But there are alternative healing ideas that fasting and juicing in themselves can cure cancer.

Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence.

Please provide your extraordinary evidence. Ideally in the form of multiple strong, well-vetted and well respected studies in peer-reviewed journals. Otherwise I'll presume you're full of it.

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#108

Post by lm28469 »

bad_user wrote: post #24
Cro_on wrote: post #10

If there were ever a panacea, it would be fasting. The more tight and widespread the research becomes, the more that we prove what humanity has known anecdotally throughout civilisation. From being a Roman cure for epileptic seizures, through the integral practice in most religions, and to the 21st century where we start to prove that it increases both healthspan and lifespan. I find it quite interesting that somethi…

And yet, most of what you said is bullshit that's not evidence based. "Autophagy", that famous process which supposedly happens during fasting, that miraculously regenerates us, actually happens during caloric restriction, and it's actually a daily process that happens during the night, in everyone, while glycogen stores get naturally depleted. And we have no evidence that increased autophagy levels are beneficial, q…

Skipping a few days of food while being overweight (the vast majority of people in the west) won't do any of what you listed though. You're probably confusing "starving" and "fasting".

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#109

Post by [deleted] »

cellularmitosis wrote: post #64
markus92 wrote: post #27

Interesting study with, as always, a lot of caveats. The most we can take from this is that it's worth to study more, the effect is existing but not extreme. I don't get the submitted title here claiming that it protects from side effects. The study does not mention this at all, just that the side effects are similar despite omission of dexamethason in the fasting arm of the trial - it increases appetite, so makes se…

Do you have any info as to which fasting schedule is most effective?

[deleted]

Re: Fasting improves chemotherapy results and protects from side effects: study

#110

Post by Funes- »

keithwarren wrote: post #98
markus92 wrote: post #27

Interesting study with, as always, a lot of caveats. The most we can take from this is that it's worth to study more, the effect is existing but not extreme. I don't get the submitted title here claiming that it protects from side effects. The study does not mention this at all, just that the side effects are similar despite omission of dexamethason in the fasting arm of the trial - it increases appetite, so makes se…

My wife is Stage 3, ++- (43 yo) and half way through the taxol phase of an ACT regimen; she is progressing well but I know she has the discipline to do a fasting diet if we thought it would help. Any thoughts on starting this mid-way through the treatment?

Try it. My mom (she left us last year at only 53, unfortunately) and I did intermittent fasting (>=16 hours), and ate a super clean and mainly ovolactovegetarian diet for most of her illness. Her life expectancy was only six months, with breast cancer and methastasis; she endured six years.

Do anything you can to help her be healthy. Diet is of extreme impoortance.

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